Hiding the creators of black propaganda

From the website of the regional Balkan Research Network (BIRN) yesterday removed the names of the creators, journalists and editors of the project "Mapping of extreme right-wing and extremist groups in the Balkans", which caused fierce reactions in the region after a group of Montenegrin civil activists, anti-fascists, including two Pobjeda journalists, labeled as far-right and religiously extreme.
From the first day of the conference in Sarajevo where the BIRN project was presented, numerous non-governmental organizations for human rights, journalist associations, prominent public figures from the Balkan region strongly condemned the report for Montenegro, stating that it was a matter of serious accusations and the political execution of prominent anti-fascists. and that this targeting of people is reminiscent of the model of black propaganda carried out by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Although the executive director of BIRN Denis Džidić, after the first reactions, stated that he would do the fact checking again and that, in case of incorrect application of the methodology, "possible mistakes will be corrected", yesterday one of the responsible persons from that organization decided to - remove from the website the names of people who are creators or responsible for the scandalous targeting of civic activists, activists and journalists Pobjeda!
HIDING TRACE
Until yesterday, on the official website, on the "About the project" page, it was written that BIRN's team, in addition to journalists from the region, also consists of three journalists from Montenegro - the editors are Samir Kajošević and Dušica Tomović, while the journalist is Jelena Jovanović.
In the deleted imprint it was written that the regional director is Marija Ristić, the executive director of BIRN BiH is Denis Džidić, the editors, in addition to Kajošević and Tomović, Ivana Jeremić, Semir Mujkić, Siniša Marušić, Markus Taner, and Metja Kolin, and the journalists who worked on the project are except for Jovanović, Nermin Kuloglija Zolj, Igor Ispanović, Vladimir Karaj, Bojan Stojkovski and Kreshnik Gashi.
All these names have been deleted in the new version of the "About the project" page, and instead of the imprint it now says generically: "For all requests, comments and complaints, please contact editor@birn.eu.com".
And while the names of the creators of the project have been removed, on the BIRN website they are still listed in order: Nebojša Mrvaljević, executive director of the Forum of Free Citizens "Luča", former president of the youth of the Liberal Union of Montenegro Predrag Vušurović, civil activist, human rights fighter and former member of the Council for Citizen Control of the Police, Aleksandar Saša Zeković, former president of the Patriotic-Komitski Alliance party and current councilor in Nikšić, Tatjana Knežević-Perišić, and Draško Martinović, a fan of the football team of Montenegro. All of them are marked as members of the "Committees and Patriots of Montenegro" group, although such an organization or association does not officially exist.
Of course, all the names and surnames of the "religious extremists" who are allegedly members of the feminist group "Bogougodnice" - civil activists Maja Miličković and Tijana Lopičić, as well as journalists and editors of Pobjeda Kaćuša Krsmanović and Tanja Pavićević - remain.
That yesterday's unethical move of removing the author of the project, while leaving the identity of the targeted Montenegrin anti-fascists, was not the result of a mistake but a conscious intention, BIRN regional director Marija Ristić indirectly confirmed for Pobjeda.
"ALL OUR AUTHORS HAVE SUPPORT"
In her correspondence with the Pobjeda journalist, avoiding answers to specific questions, she said that this network was behind every published text.
We were guided by our research standards and all our authors have our support and trust. Also, we take all criticisms that have been sent seriously and will take them into account, and we will publish requests for denials and corrections in our Letters to the editor section, as journalistic ethics dictates - Ristić wrote in an email.
A journalist from Pobjeda addressed BIRN's regional director yesterday, apologizing for disturbing her while she is on vacation, with a request to provide answers to several questions, and considering the fact that Pobjeda encountered a complete lack of communication with BIRN BiH director Denis Džidić, who coordinated the entire project and has been avoiding all attempts to establish contact with the Pobjeda newsroom for three days now.
We asked Ristić whether the independent fact-checking of the report on Montenegro, which Džidić announced on Thursday, had begun, as well as to explain the methodology in detail.
We asked him to answer what type of research was used, the precise criteria on the basis of which an individual is identified as an extremist, the criteria for identifying someone as a religious extremist, what fact-checking methods were used to verify the author's reports, because Jelena Jovanović's analysis is full of incorrect facts. , and was the surveying system used in the methodology and the perception of the respondents?
We also asked if, and when, the names that Jovanović targeted as an end to right-wing and religious extremists will be removed from the map, with the hope that this time they will not ignore the questions, primarily because of the interest of the Montenegrin public, but also because of the importance for BIRN's reputation.
To all these questions, Ristić replied that, apart from the above, she would not comment further because she is on vacation (!?) with the remark that "colleague Denis says that you talked on the phone".
Perhaps the very fact that "colleague Denis" told his colleague Ristić a blatant lie speaks best of the high ethical and professional standards that prevail in the regional BIRN.
REACTIONS
And yesterday in Montenegro there were plenty of reactions to BIRN's scandalous report for Montenegro.
NGO 35mm, which for years, as they say, has been happy to cooperate with colleagues from the BIRN network on the implementation of various projects, appealed to colleagues and associates in that network to urgently check and possibly revise the research that maps far-right and extremist groups in the Balkans .
The non-governmental organization expresses concern that labeling activism as an extremist threat could expose them to attacks by individuals or organizations that do not share their views and significantly complicate their lives and activities.
The Media Council for Self-Regulation (MSS) has condemned the gross misuse of the Balkan Research Network project for daily political purposes and assesses that it is an attempt to deal harshly with civil activists in Montenegro from a media and political center, and an attempt to fight against clerical-nationalism in Montenegro is characterized as extreme Montenegrin nationalism.
A group of university professors, intellectuals, journalists, publicists and civic activists wrote a letter yesterday to the Delegation of the European Union in Montenegro, which is one of BIRN's donors, in which they express serious concern about the report of author Jelena Jovanović.
The Cabinet of the President of Montenegro also strongly condemned the statements from the published "research" by BIRN, evaluating it as nonsense, like the attempt to equate the organizers of the Thirteenth of July Uprising with collaborators of the occupiers in World War II.
THE LOGIC OF PROPAGANDA
BIRN's silence on numerous reactions from Montenegro and the Western Balkan region lead to the conclusion that the targeting of civic activists and anti-fascists in Montenegro is not the result of chance.
Just as it is no coincidence that the targeting came from a journalist from the Vijesti concern. Equating civil activists and independent journalists with people from extreme nationalist organizations linked to the Church of Serbia and fundamentalist Islamic groups from Rožaj and Plav is just a continuation of the narrative that the Vijesti concern has been carrying out for a long time.
It is a matter of mundane, but very intense black propaganda, which aims to label Montenegrin sovereignists - not only individuals but also organizations, media and parties that advocate for a civil and multi-ethnic Montenegro - as extremists and equate them with numerous real extremists. to Orthodox brotherhoods and organizations that are mere instruments of a large-state project that is logistically supported by official Belgrade and official Moscow.
That's why it shouldn't be surprising that BIRN's hunters of extremists in Montenegro magically failed to note, for example, the "Night Wolves" motorcycle group, known to the general public as Putin's bikers. In Montenegro, this organization has been registered since 2015, and they were very active in securing the litium of the Church of Serbia, but also in numerous later actions, including the "defense" of the Cetinje Monastery in September 2021 during the "helicopter" enthronement of Joanikij Mićović on Cetinje.
The activities of the "Night Wolves" are prohibited in many countries of the European Union, and at the beginning of August this year, the National Security Agency initiated a ban on their activities with the Government of Montenegro.
Prize question for the Montenegrin researcher and for the editors of BIRN: are the members of the "Night Wolves" really a humanitarian organization, and the Pobjeda journalists, for example, really dangerous religious extremists?
We don't have to wait for an answer. This question alone will not be removed tomorrow or some other day, like the hidden names and surnames of the creators of the project and the scandalous BIRN report for Montenegro.
PUSIĆ: BIRN became an instrument of attacks on human rights activists
The former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia, Vesna Pusić, reacted to the scandalous report of the journalist of the Vijesti concern, addressing on Twitter the chairman of the European Initiative for Stability, Gerald Knaus, and the member of the European Parliament, Viola von Kramon.
The Balkan research network BIRN in Montenegro has become an instrument of attacks on human rights activists with its latest report. A template similar to the Russian strategy, including the targeting of feminist groups like Pussy Riot - wrote Pusić.